[v2] Add A_Offset for zero-based memory functions

[iseahound]

A_Offset starting from zero, would be a clearer alternative to (A_Index-1). This would have no impact on the current one-based indexing in AutoHotkey.

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In any case, starting from zero or one has always depended on what one practically means as they could be thinking about the number of offsets from the beginning or the index of the current element. To put it succulently, both sides have been talking over each other because they have been talking about different things.

A short story on William James and the squirrel

SOME YEARS AGO, being with a camping party in the mountains, I returned from a solitary ramble to find every one engaged in a ferocious metaphysical dispute. The corpus of the dispute was a squirrel – a live squirrel supposed to be clinging to one side of a tree-trunk; while over against the tree’s opposite side a human being was imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that never a glimpse of him is caught. The resultant metaphysical problem now is this: Does the man go round the squirrel or not? He goes round the tree, sure enough, and the squirrel is on the tree; but does he go round the squirrel? In the unlimited leisure of the wilderness, discussion had been worn threadbare. Every one had taken sides, and was obstinate; and the numbers on both sides were even. Each side, when I appeared therefore appealed to me to make it a majority. Mindful of the scholastic adage that whenever you meet a contradiction you must make a distinction, I immediately sought and found one, as follows: “Which party is right,” I said, “depends on what you practically mean by ‘going round’ the squirrel. If you mean passing from the north of him to the east, then to the south, then to the west, and then to the north of him again, obviously the man does go round him, for he occupies these successive positions. But if on the contrary you mean being first in front of him, then on the right of him, then behind him, then on his left, and finally in front again, it is quite as obvious that the man fails to go round him, for by the compensating movements the squirrel makes, he keeps his belly turned towards the man all the time, and his back turned away. Make the distinction, and there is no occasion for any farther dispute. You are both right and both wrong according as you conceive the verb ‘to go round’ in one practical fashion or the other.”

[guest3456]

presumably you're talking about this builtin variable occuring inside loops, in which case, i think it'd be better named to be simply A_ZeroIndex or something, since offset is only one of many possible use cases for this inside of a loop

[iseahound]

It's like moving from point A to point B in a series of steps, where each step spans an interval. If it takes me 3 steps, one, two, three, then I have also crossed 3 intervals.

Imagine standing on the shore and seeing 3 islands in the distance. A bridge builder would build 3 bridges to connect 3 islands, with each bridge spanning from the previous island to the next. But it would be incorrect to view the world in terms of all bridges or islands. It should appear that it is merely a coincidence that the number of bridges is equal to the number of islands. (Because you may be standing on an island yourself!)

Just as I wouldn't conflate islands and bridges,
steps and intervals,
I see no reason why offset and index would not suffice.

A_ZeroBridge hardly makes any sense.